Head to Head Comparison: Xenetic Biosciences (NASDAQ:XBIO) versus Vaxart (NASDAQ:VXRT)

Xenetic Biosciences (NASDAQ:XBIO) and Vaxart (NASDAQ:VXRT) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Xenetic Biosciences and Vaxart, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Xenetic Biosciences	0	1	0	0	2.00
Vaxart	0	0	2	0	3.00

Vaxart has a consensus target price of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 569.94%. Given Vaxart’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Vaxart is more favorable than Xenetic Biosciences.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Xenetic Biosciences and Vaxart”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Xenetic Biosciences	$2.50 million	2.43	-$3.96 million	($2.38)	-1.66
Vaxart	$47.40 million	2.16	-$66.95 million	($0.27)	-1.66

Xenetic Biosciences has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Vaxart. Vaxart is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Xenetic Biosciences, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Xenetic Biosciences has a beta of 2.34, indicating that its share price is 134% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vaxart has a beta of 1.14, indicating that its share price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

15.1% of Xenetic Biosciences shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 18.0% of Vaxart shares are held by institutional investors. 14.7% of Xenetic Biosciences shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Vaxart shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Xenetic Biosciences and Vaxart’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Xenetic Biosciences	-142.10%	-57.31%	-49.30%
Vaxart	-122.63%	-91.89%	-38.40%

Summary

Vaxart beats Xenetic Biosciences on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Xenetic Biosciences

Xenetic Biosciences, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on progressing XCART, a personalized CAR T platform technology engineered to target patient-specific tumor neoantigens. The Company is initially advancing cell-based therapeutics targeting the unique B-cell receptor on the surface of an individual patient’s malignant tumor cells for the treatment of B-cell lymphomas. XCART has the potential to fuel a robust pipeline of therapeutic assets targeting high-value oncology indications.

About Vaxart

Vaxart, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, discovers and develops oral recombinant protein vaccines based on its proprietary oral vaccine platform. The company’s product pipeline includes norovirus vaccine, a bivalent oral tablet vaccine in Phase 2 clinical trial for the GI.1 and GII.4 norovirus strains; coronavirus vaccine, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial, for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection; seasonal influenza vaccine, which is in Phase 2 clinical trial, to treat H1 influenza infection; and human papillomavirus therapeutic vaccine, which is in preclinical stage, that targets HPV-16 and HPV-18 for cervical cancers and precancerous cervical lesions. It has a license agreement with Altesa Biosciences, Inc. to develop and commercialize Vapendavir, a capsid-binding broad-spectrum antiviral. Vaxart, Inc. is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.